Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
6:43 | After briefly serving on a survey vessel at the end of the war, during which he saw the devastation wrought by Allied bombing on Japan, Ralph Bounds was finally sailing toward home. As duty for the trip was being assigned, his name was garbled on the roster and this led to a very pleasant voyage.
Ralph Bounds wanted to be a Navy radioman after seeing the insignia on a neighbor's uniform, and after an epic, draining train trip across the country to boot camp, he went to radio school. Soon, he was part of GEN MacArthur's communications operation in Australia and New Guinea.
When Ralph Bounds' communications unit was posted to Port Moresby in 1943, the conditions were tough and the food was terrible. The natives hired to do work on the base agreed with him about the food.
Applying for submarine duty seemed like a good idea for a change of pace, but when Ralph Bounds took the physical, he was told his tonsils were enlarged and he would have to get them removed before he could start the training. That sounded simple enough, but the outcome wasn't so simple.
After participating in the invasion of Leyte, Navy Radioman Ralph Bounds got a 30 day leave and went home. Before he could start his leave, though, he experienced another taste of military health care when it was discovered that his medical records were lost and he had to get all his inoculations again.
The war in Europe was over and the Philippines were back in allied hands, but the war was still on and Navy Radioman Ralph Bounds was reassigned to underwater demolition duty to prepare for the invasion of Japan. After noon chow one day, as they sailed toward that dreaded task, there was a mighty sound as all guns began firing.
The war was over but Ralph Bounds still had two struggles to go. As he waited for reassignment in a huge receiving station, he came down with an embarrassing health problem that was shared by everyone else there. Then he was assigned to a small research vessel that was immediately caught in a huge storm.
Ralph Bounds was handed a top secret message and told to deliver it to General MacArthur's residence, His instructions were to tun it over to whomever opened the general's bedroom door.
What happens when you tell a 19 year old who just learned how to drive to take a jeep down a jungle road in the middle of the night? Ralph Bounds was that young man on a dark road in New Guinea.
It was supposed to be fun, a day in the surf in a South Pacific paradise. But the men were unprepared for the elements and Ralph Bounds suffered for this bit of R&R.
